Adventure and Photography – Passion for the Outdoors

Lake O’Hara – Pristine Winter Wilderness

Yoho National Park, British ColumbiaThe silence is only broken by the sound of creaking snow from skis slowly working it’s way uphill. Surrounded by tall pine trees reaching towards the sky. The skiing up to Lake O’Hara was pure meditation.

Well … maybe except from the last 3 kilometres where most of the elevation gain of 450 meters was climbed, this part definitely got my pulse up!

I look tiny amongst the huge pine threes surrounding the trail

Lake O’Hara Lodge has been on our ‘bucket list’ for a while and we were excited to finally make this trip. During summer you can catch a shuttle up to Lake O’Hara and go hiking from there. During winter the road is closed, but track set for cross country skiing.

A perfect day for skiing, no wonder I am smiling. Also this picture is from 5 km into the trail and I was oblivious to the steep hills ahead of us.

The lodge has history back to 1926 and was as many of the lodges in Rocky Mountain built Canadian Pacific Railway. It is possible to stay overnight at the lodge both summer and winter, but you have to book early as the lodge has limited space and is always fully booked long before the season.

Beautiful mountain scenery

After the steep ascend the last 3 kilometres we were happy to see the Lake O’Hara sign welcoming us. The lodge has a day shelter for those who wish to enjoy their own lunch, the shelter can be used both summer and winter We were heading for a delightful lunch at the rustic main lodge.

Day shelter at the lake

Remember to bring cash if you plan on having lunch at the lodge. We were very grateful for the warm welcome and the great service at the lodge. They served us a full lunch menu despite the fact that we were unaware of the ‘cash only’ policy and therefore didn’t have enough money to cover the bill…

Lake O’Hara Lodge

After a delicious lunch we explored the lake and the majestic mountains surrounding it. We would love to come back to Lake O’Hara to do some hiking here during summer. The landscape around the lodge is jaw dropping! I’ll let the picture speak for themselves.

The trip back to the car was much faster then going up as it was mostly downhill. It was going back again I realised how steep some of the hills were as we gained pretty good speed going down!

Driving back to Lake Louise the sun was a bit lower and threw a beautiful light on Rocky Mountains. With the moon just starting to show it was the perfect ending of a long, but good day of skiing.

Easy going on our way back to the parking lot

My somewhat subjective trip rating:

Trail: You begin your trip at the parking lot to the left of highway 1 just before Great Divide Lodge (going west). Cross the train tracks to get to the parking lot. The trail starts out fairly flat, around half way the scenery opens up before for a while you get to a section with some enormous pine threes! With about 3 km remaining you hit some steep slopes and most of the elevation gain is during this last section of the trail before you reach Lake O’Hara.

Worth it? Yes!

Difficulty: Medium+, some steep ascents. Easy return as it is mostly downhill.

Length: 22 km roundtrip

Elevation Gain: 450 m

Duration: 5-6 hours including lunch break at the lodge

Thanks for reading, be sweet and leave a comment as well! We’d love to hear what you think.

Thanks Jim! We are so used to being able to pay with cards nowadays that I didn’t even think about bringing cash. Can’t really take for granted that they take credit card in the middle of Yoho National Park wilderness! 🙂 The mountains surrounding the lake was magnificent! I really want to go back here during summer to do some hiking in those mountains!

The lodge was very cozy. And it is not big so the number of guests are limited. I believe all the guests get to know each other very well during a stay here. And amazing trips start from your door step – well, once you have reached the cabin that is, first need to get to it, but that’s half the fun:)

Almost no snow in Calgary either by the way, we had 10C (50F) last week! What happened to the winter? We were actually evaluating taking a trip to Alaska to go skiing Alyeska. But my husband volunteered for Nor-Am in Nakiska last week and talked to one of the trainers who slso stated there was very little snow. So we’ll save it for another year! 🙂

Thank you for the nice comments on the photos! I love skiing a new trail I haven’t experienced before, there is something new to discover and capture around every turn. And the hot lunch was just luxury!

Thanks Nicole! The Rockies are easily one of the most picturesque places I have been! And the wildlife is just great! How was Rocky Mountain NP? Was there good hiking possibilities? And what kind of wildlife did you see there?

I loved it, too! I just wish we had more time there. Most of the time while we were there, a huge snow storm was moving in, so the conditions for hiking or even spending time in the park were quite bad. We decided to go back on our last day there (from Estes Park), and it was GORGEOUS! There was a lot of snow-shoeing and cross country skiing opportunities, including ranger-led snow shoeing! Hiking was fair because most of the trails were snow packed, but most people had spikes on their boots to keep from slipping. It was so incredibly beautiful, but unfortunately, we couldn’t stay for long because our flight left that night. We didn’t see any animals, but we did see lots of tracks – mostly deer and rabbits. People on the trails at Bear Lake reported owls and a moose sighting, though!

Thank for you generous comments Jet! The landscape was magnificent, almost forgot how tiring the the last steep hills were:) The service at the lodge was great, we were so happy they fed all us despite our lack of cash…hehe… 🙂 We even offered to send money by mail, but they would have none of it:)

Inger & Tor

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